Archive: March 8, 2009 - March 14, 2009

My favorite book of 2008 -- Roxana Robinson's "Cost" -- has just been chosen as the best novel by the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance. As we all should, Robinson has a summer place on Mount Desert Island, ME. If you haven't read this fantastic novel, I can't recommend it...

The late Chilean writer Roberto Bolano has won this year's fiction prize from the National Book Critics Circle for "2666," his complex, five-part novel about a series of murders in Mexico. And for the first time in the organization's 35-year history, the poetry prize was split between two authors, Juan...

For some of the most accomplished writers in the country, last night was the equivalent of a cold call audition: All 30 of the finalists for this year's National Book Critics Circle awards were invited to read from their nominated works before an audience of about 200 at the New...

I keep hearing horror stories from authors about cover art -- how they detest the cover art their publishers choose, how the publishers refuse to consult them about those choices, how they have pleaded to no avail for the use of archival photos of the real people or places described...

A comic book collector in Dubai placed the winning bid -- $19,120 -- for a rare first edition of the first Harry Potter novel. The book, offered online last week by Heritage Auction Galleries in Dallas, is one of just 200 softcover copies that were originally printed mostly for schools...

Attorney-turned-mystery-writer Barbara Parker, best known for her "Suspicion" series, died this weekend in Boca Raton. The Sun Sentinel ran this tribute. Two years ago, our contributing editor Dennis Drabelle raved about her novel "The Perfect Fake": "There's a lot going on in Barbara Parker's The Perfect Fake. Several people die...

It's a cliche even to mention this, but at book signings the two cliche questions are: How do you write? and When do you write? I couldn't care less whether a writer uses a computer, a quill or a typewriter so ancient that a special assistant must be hired in...